Three questions to boost nursing home audit readiness
By
Brian Evans
Sep 20, 2023
Nursing home and long-term care operators have already faced a number of key shifts since the beginning of 2023. Consider a recent example from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: an update on...
Whose life is it anyway?
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Sep 21, 2023
My family is full of therapists, and most of us work in skilled nursing. My sister, an experienced speech language pathologist, called to commiserate about one of her patients who had difficulty swallowing. ...
The role of automation in addressing staffing shortages
By
Melissa Powell
Jul 07, 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly exacerbated staffing shortages in the healthcare industry, particularly in nursing homes and other long-term care centers. As facilities strive to bolster their...
CMS should bring its oversight hammer down . . . on states
By
Brendan Williams
Oct 17, 2022
CMS has an absolute hammer when it comes to accepting, or rejecting, state Medicaid rates that it finds fail to substantially comply with federal law,
Time to get rid of the nurse-aide training prohibition, CMS!
By
Neville M. Bilimoria
Dec 19, 2022
I’ve written a lot in the past few years about increased enforcement against nursing homes when it comes to health surveys by state departments of public health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
Infection control without adding staff — it’s not just a fluke
By
Mary Cole
Jul 26, 2023
In a recent letter to leaders in Congress, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) highlighted the “astonishing lack of attention to infection prevention and control...
HHS could open the door for more marijuana use in nursing homes
By
Neville M. Bilimoria
Sep 19, 2023
I have been touting the benefits of medical marijuana for nursing home/senior care residents for many years now. As a cannabis attorney, as well, I have been immersed in the research and studies,...
A love letter to baby boomers
By
Steven Littlehale
Dec 14, 2022
Dear baby boomers, Thank you, thank you, thank you! You made my ugly-as-sin, chunky, deep-cut, orthopedic “sneakers” acceptable to wear with my fancy tailored business suit. I don’t have to...
Let there not be light
By
Gary Tetz
Nov 17, 2022
It’s the first command in the Biblical creation story — let there be light. But if you’re working a night shift in a long-term care facility, I need you to stop reading this right now and go turn...
Our brave new world
By
Jean Wendland Porter
Feb 07, 2023
The Public Health Emergency, initiated in 2020 and continuing to the present, established a new and complex means of getting healthcare. Because many were worried about social distancing and leaving...